Famous names on hard times: It's becoming a theme for John T. La Duc. In April, La Duc, 61, left his job as chief financial officer at bankrupt Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. after a 35-year career at the Houston-based company. He's now CFO at Foster Wheeler Ltd., the troubled engineering and construction giant. La Duc's new job reunites him with his old boss, Raymond Milchovich, the former Kaiser CEO who has been running Foster Wheeler since late 2001.

Since Kaiser filed for Chapter 11 in February 2002, La Duc has been overseeing the piecemeal selloff of its core commodity aluminum business. The company hopes to leave bankruptcy by the end of 2004 as a much smaller business making fabricated aluminum products.

The situation at Foster Wheeler looks even tougher. The Clinton, N.J.-based company, which builds power plants and refineries around the world, has been fighting for life for two years, struggling with negative cash flows, accounting problems and a shrinking list of orders. Foster Wheeler's last hope - and La Duc's first priority - is a $700 million debt-for-equity swap that bondholders and preferred shareholders are considering. Unlike aluminum companies, construction companies that declare bankruptcy rarely re-emerge. - Soma Biswas

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